He was smoking and looking, and I could tell when he liked it. “I watched him like a hawk even when we were filming, I could see him near the camera, with a very intent expression.

“He was a great communicator so that he could tell you what to do and not boss you around,” she writes. It emphasizes how different Fosse was from the man portrayed in “All That Jazz,” his 1979 semi-autobiographical film. Minnelli, who first worked with Fosse on “Cabaret,” for which she won an Academy Award, has prepared an introduction that will be read at the screening. While she won’t be present at the Lincoln Center event, Ms. Minnelli, front and center, who carries “Liza With a ‘Z’”: She’s a theatrical powerhouse. (So was Michael Jackson.) And his life with Gwen Verdon, his third wife and collaborator and muse, was the subject of the recent TV series “Fosse/Verdon.” But it is Ms. Minnelli doesn’t merely sing and dance: She turns herself inside out.įosse, who died in 1987, transformed musical theater with his brand of jazz choreography that celebrated a kind of sleek and sensual angularity in shows like “Sweet Charity” and “Chicago.” Fosse’s influence has soared in recent years - Beyoncé, as her music videos attest, is clearly a fan. It remains a spellbinding example of the art of performance, where endurance and skill braid with courage and grace. In 2006, “Liza” was presented on Showtime, and ever since, this nearly lost piece of art has been available for the watching - even on YouTube. The concert was broadcast on NBC, but shown only three times eventually, it was restored and remastered. It’s not just that she knows what she’s doing, but that she couldn’t be any other way. Minnelli, 26 at the time, delivers that with perfection. In “Liza,” humor, not smut, defines sexy, and the elfin Ms.

There was only one chance to pull it off.ĭirected and choreographed by Bob Fosse for Liza Minnelli, “Liza With a ‘Z,’ ” the film of that concert, was a profound meeting of artist and muse. It had to be - and not just because its director was a notorious perfectionist. On May 31, 1972, a show burst onto the stage of the Lyceum Theater rehearsed to within an inch of its life.

One chance to dance